From the Principals' Desk

Nossal Life

The last newsletter began with a recap of all the major school events that had taken place in the first two weeks of Term Two – namely the South East Feast, Academic Selective Entry School Network Conference, the ANZAC Day Assembly and Parent Student Teacher conferences. The "busyness" of school life at Nossal has continued into the term; a reminder of the rich and varied curricular and co-curricular program that is on offer to our students. Schools and teachers are tasked with the important role of not only educating students in areas of the mandated Victorian and VCE Curriculum but also in providing opportunities for leadership, co-curricular involvement through sport and music and enrichment in areas of interest which challenge our students and aim to build their knowledge, skills and sense of community spirit.

Nossal Pride

On Thursday 3 May the Information Evening was held for prospective 2019 students. The current students who volunteered as tour guides were superb representatives of Nossal, sharing their knowledge of the school’s background, philosophy and curriculum and in responding thoroughly to questions. Other Year 9 students led the presentation part of the evening and relished in the opportunity to share their personal reflections of their time at Nossal over the past term and a half. Their presentations on topics including transport, iWeek, Tutorial groups, co-curricular opportunities, uniform and “A day in the life of Nossal” were informative, articulate and heartfelt. Their pride in being part of the Nossal community was evident. I felt honoured to be able to listen to their impressive and witty speeches. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms Catherine Loel (Director of Year 9) and Ms Anna Banaag (Year 9 Coordinator) for organising the program and for preparing the Student Ambassadors for the evening. The students were wonderful role models for the school.

Presenting the School Leaders

On Monday 7 May the school acknowledged and celebrated the leaders of Nossal High School at the Badge Assembly. This event reinforced the philosophy of the school; students “Embracing the Challenge” and showcased the breadth of groups, activities and leadership opportunities that exist in the school. It was wonderful to see so many students presented with their badge to celebrate their involvement and commitment to Nossal in a range of positions including House Leaders, AV Leaders, Environment Leaders, Maths Peer Coaching Leaders, Science Leaders, Drama Captains, Debating Captain, SRC, and the Wellbeing Leaders. Congratulations to all students in achieving their aims and goals for 2018.

Student Safety

Earlier in the week Mr Page, Mr Butler and I met with the local Transit Police at Berwick Railway Station. Contrary to the student’s belief that we were monitoring their uniform and behaviour, this visit was a joint venture between the school and the police to ensure that students were engaging in safe practices at the station. You may recall over the past few newsletters that there were concerns raised by members of the public about some Nossal students pushing open the gates when the signals were ringing to indicate on arriving train. The purpose of this visit was to reinforce our concern for our students in ensuring that they make it home safely each night.

Student Voice

Last week the opinions of all Years 9 – 12 students were surveyed using the annual Student Attitude to School Survey. Later in the year when these results are returned to the school, student responses will be viewed and discussed with the intent to make changes where necessary for the continued betterment of the school.

Generations in Jazz

Recently, a group of 35 talented students attended the Generations in Jazz (GIJ) Festival in Mount Gambier, South Australia. From all reports, the three-day tour, although tiring, was fantastic and on the Arts/Tech News page of this newsletter you can read some reports of the trip as well as see some pictures of our students' performances.

Local Parliamentary Conference

Recently our school was selected by National Curriculum Services to host a Local Constitutional Convention. The convention took place on the 8 May and was attended by students from Nossal as well as Mary Mackillop College, Fountain Gate Secondary College, and Hampton Park Secondary College. Our chosen topic for the day was The Australian constitution should be amended to enshrine a “First Nations’ Voice to Parliament” to promote and advance reconciliation.

The students had the opportunity to hear from prevalent advocates from both sides of the debate currently taking place, including Shireen Morris, the Senior Policy Adviser & Constitutional Reform Research Fellow at Cape York Institute and Simon Breheny, Director of Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs. The students then spent the latter half of the day in vigorous discussion as to whether or not they believed the constitution should be amended. At the close of the convention, the overwhelming response was that a First Nations voice should be present in parliament.

Student feedback from the day was incredibly positive. They enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about and engage with a current issue in Australian politics. Students have already expressed interest in hosting another convention next year and are keen to attend the State convention in September where they shall be discussing the topic Does the Constitution meet the needs of modern Australia?

This was an engaging and enriching experience for all students that were involved in the day and it would not have been possible without the hard work and outstanding organisation of Ms Denman and Hayden Radford (Year 12).

NAPLAN Online Testing

All Year 9 students will participate in NAPLAN Online Testing this week. Students are reminded that they need to bring a fully charged laptop, headphones and a reading book with them for these tests. The schedule for the NAPLAN Online test is shown below and also appears on each student’s Compass Schedule:

Tuesday 15 May (Period 1): Reading
Wednesday 16 May (Periods 2 &3): Writing
Wednesday 16 May (Period 4): Conventions of Language
Thursday 17 May (Periods 1&2)

Understanding Resilience

Later in the term, Nossal students and staff will participate in presentations delivered by The Resilience Project. The Resilience Project aims to deliver emotionally engaging programs which provide students, parents and teachers with evidence based, practical strategies to build resilience.

Nossal will also be hosting a special event presentation by The Resilience Project for parents. This free presentation will be held in The Meath Auditorium on Tuesday 19 June from 7.30pm – 9.00pm. We hope that you are able to join us for this presentation and help us ensure we can teach our young people to be mentally healthy.

Bookings are now open for this important program at https://www.trybooking.com/VOFJ

We look forward to seeing you at this Wellbeing event.

Fiona Vanstan

Assistant Principal

VCE Premier's Awards

Congratulations to Lasith Koswatta Gamage (Class of 2017) who received a prestigious VCE Premier’s Award for Further Mathematics on 15 May.

The Premier’s Awards recognize the top performing VCE students in the state and are presented to small number of students each year. Lasith received his award from James Merlino (Deputy Premier and Education Minister at a large ceremony at the convention centre in Melbourne. He was full of praise for his Maths teacher (Mr Loi Tran) and very thankful for his time at Nossal which he says prepared him very well for university. (He is currently studying Engineering and Science at Monash)

Perhaps even more impressively, Ruby Bai of Year 11 also received a VCE Premier’s Award for Chinese Second Language Advanced for her language studies at the Chinese Culture School last year (when she was in Year 10!)